


Questions for the Sorting Hat

by wasureneba



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Hogwarts Era, Sorting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-02
Updated: 2013-09-02
Packaged: 2017-12-25 11:10:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/952378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wasureneba/pseuds/wasureneba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose and Albus have some questions for the Sorting Hat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Questions for the Sorting Hat

Rose and Albus sit together on their first Hogwarts train.

"Still worrying about Slytherin?" Rose asks Albus, looking at him from under her bangs. Albus had been nervous all summer, ever since James had started teasing him after returning home.

"Well, yeah. But---oh, don't say anything to anyone, I don't think we're supposed to know," Albus says, voice dropping. Rose leans forward.

"Don't tell anything what?" he replies.

"Dad---Dad says that we can choose," Albus whispers.

"Choose?"

"He says that the Sorting Hat takes what we want into account."

Rose whistles and drops back into her seat. "But I thought the Sorting Hat was supposed to look deep into your personality or something. I mean, it's not like you choose your personality, right?"

"I guess. I mean, can it really look very deeply? Mum says it's only on most people's heads for a few seconds. It's not like that's a lot of time to get to know you."

"Maybe not. But then---if it doesn't look deep into your personality, what does it do?" Rose is confused and intrigued now. 

Albus shrugs.

When they arrive in the Great Hall, hems of their clocks wet from the water that a bland-faced boy had gotten into the boat, they stare apprehensively at the Hat. Somehow the news that the Sorting Hat took student preference into account had made it both less magical and far more mysterious than they had ever thought it to be.

The hat has been on Albus's head less than a second and a half when it screams "RAVENCLAW!" into the Great Hall. The Ravenclaw table bursts into cheers---Rose can hear "We got a Potter!" from the far end---and Albus moves to his new table, looking bemused. 

When the Hat settles over Rose's ears, she thinks very quickly _But how do you Sort us? How deeply do you look into us? What do you DO?_

She almost feels the Hat grin. _How very strange to get the same question twice in one Sorting. I look at you for the characteristics that the Founders would have seen in you. And that, my dear, is the question of a_ "RAVENCLAW!"

Rose walks over to Albus in a daze. "It wouldn't tell me," she says. "I asked it, it wouldn't tell me. It just said it looked at us for characteristics---"

"I know!" Albus roars as Warrington, Cynthia is sorted into Gryffindor. "That's not a real answer, that's just what everyone tells us!"

They sit, talking low and furious, only coming up when Zellig, Harris is sorted into Slytherin; and then the food appears, and Rose grabs for a pasty and a tartlette, because her mother can't tell her to eat her veggies first here.


End file.
